


Letters Across the Sea

by sparrowkeet1



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Smut, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:54:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24808090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowkeet1/pseuds/sparrowkeet1
Summary: After five years apart, a reunion among friends is long overdue. They are world leaders now, and rumors of trade difficulties and civil unrest have them fighting to keep the peace.For Fire Lord Zuko, the years have been especially long and lonely, and much has changed since they were last together. Katara has been his one constant--she has sent him dozens of letters from the South Pole like a lifeline across the globe. He has sent back words he could never say aloud, pitching them into the void of the sea, but she has never let go of the tether between them. His life may peak and crash like the waves, but she is always there, reaching out to him.Now she is in his palace instead of on the other side of the world, reaching out from only a few feet away.--Written [early] for Zutara Week 2020, Prompt Day 1 - Reunion.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 664





	Letters Across the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Prompt 1 - Reunion for Zutara Week 2020. It's officially at the end of July, but I wrote this and I couldn't wait to post it.

_1:_

_Fire Lord Zuko,_

_I can’t believe that’s your title now! Even though we saw your coronation, you still seem like just Zuko to me. Not that that’s a bad thing! It’s just really different._

_I guess everything is different now. The war is over, and we’re all split up. That’s why I’m writing you—to update you on everyone. I kind of doubt anyone else will remember to keep in touch. Besides, I have a lot of free time now._

_After your coronation, Appa flew us all—not you, of course—back to the South Pole. Some of the waterbenders from the North had already arrived, and we got right to work putting up buildings and walls and fountains. Aang even helped me make canals like they have in the North Pole, for traveling around by boat._

_Having the Avatar on your construction crew makes for quick work, and before I knew it, we were done! Aang said he was needed in the Earth Kingdom. He and Appa took Toph and Suki to Ba Sing Se. I wanted to go with them, but my father said he wanted me here to help out. He’s started instructing Sokka in the ways of Chief. Turns out what he meant by “help” was “do all of Sokka’s chores while I teach him Important Manly Things.”_

_Sokka gets lots of letters from Suki, and she usually sends word from Toph, too. They’re both rebuilding Ba Sing Se, and it sounds like slow going. I wish I could be there to work alongside them._

_Aang visits as often as he can, but he says the world needs him to maintain balance, so he’s away a lot. I really miss him. I miss everybody, and I miss traveling and seeing so many interesting things._

_How are things in the Fire Nation? You’re the only one we haven’t heard from. I hope everything is ok. Write back soon!_

_Katara_

Zuko is moving slowly through his firebending forms, drawing in steady breaths to center himself, when his concentration is totally shattered by the unmistakable _thump_ that is the landing of a ten-ton flying bison. 

“Zuko!” Aang’s chipper voice rings out as he springs over the palace roof into the training grounds. He lands lightly and throws himself onto Zuko. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been so long! How have you been? How’s running a country? Is it fun? Do you like it?” 

Aang is still peppering him with questions when the rest of their friends burst through the doors and spill into the courtyard. Toph, Suki, Sokka, and Katara pile on as Momo jumps from shoulder to shoulder and ends up squarely on Zuko’s head. 

“Honestly, why do I even have guards?” he wonders, but he is smiling. It’s good to know that they are at least still all fans of group hugs and not much for protocol. He tacks on a teasing, “And that’s Fire Lord Zuko to you.” 

The all scamper off him and fall into mock bows. “Oh, Your Majesty!” Toph drawls. “We _do_ beg your pardon. Please accept this token of our apology.” And she thrusts a pillar of stone under his feet so that he flies through the air and lands in the dust. 

“So great to see you all,” he deadpans. 

“Really, we should get down to business—right, everyone?” Katara, mother hen, same as ever. 

_8:_

_Fire Lord Zuko,_

_Suki came with Aang from the Earth Kingdom a few days ago. She says to give you her best and that Toph says ‘Tell Sparky hi for me.’ She stayed behind to keep working. Suki says the Kyoshi Warriors have been training more soldiers, and Toph has been instructing the Earth Kingdom Guard in more advanced earthbending._

_That’s one thing I wanted to be different—now that there’s no more war, why does the Earth Kingdom need even more warriors and benders trained to fight? Aang and Suki say the Earth Kingdom leaders don’t believe that peace will last. They are afraid the Fire Nation will attack again. I told them you wouldn’t do that, but they said not everyone trusts the Fire Nation as much as I do. I told them I didn’t know much about the Fire Nation, but I know you, and you wouldn’t betray us._

_It’s great to have Suki and Aang with us. If you and Toph were here, it would be like having the whole gang back together! Suki has even been sparring with me, which is great—I want to keep up my strength and my waterbending skills. There’s no one else to practice with. Even Master Pakku is too busy training the younger waterbenders who came with their parents from the North. He says he doesn’t need my help._

_How is it that no one needs my help unless it’s with cooking or cleaning or mending Sokka’s filthy socks? I guess the same way everyone wants to tell me what to do except for when they want me to solve all their problems. There’s something that hasn’t changed with the war. Before, during, and after—I’m everyone’s mother hen no matter what._

_But enough complaining. I’m sure you have a lot more to worry about than being unappreciated, and I’m sure you’re never bored. Tell your uncle hello from me!_

_Katara_

_P.S. – Just between you and me, Suki never sleeps in the guest quarters, and I’m afraid that soon we’ll have some wild combination of her and my brother running around. How’s that to keep a person from getting bored?_

And of course, she’s not the same as ever. She is taller and full-figured, the same way Sokka is taller and broader than when Zuko last saw them. Sokka wears the full mantle of Chief now, and he is not the same, either, because instead of making a crack about not even getting to eat yet, he nods. “Katara’s right. We have a lot to figure out.” 

Zuko shows them all to the Great Room, and they take their seats around a massive table. Zuko holds most of his meetings with his Ministers in this room, and he sits in his familiar spot at the head of the table, where a small mountain of scrolls and papers has taken up more or less permanent residence. He motions to a member of the kitchen staff waiting in a side doorway, and soon servers are bustling around the table laying out a spread that would have satisfied a much younger Sokka’s formidable appetite. 

“Please, help yourselves,” he says. “I know you had a long journey here.” 

They dig in, and Zuko begins pouring tea for his guests. He is somewhat amused to see Sokka inhaling his food—so despite his new seriousness to go with his new rank, he is not completely different from the kid Zuko remembers.

_15:_

_Zuko,_

_Sokka was officially sworn in as Chief of the Southern Water Tribe today. I’m so proud of him, but it’s so crazy to think that my goofy big brother is the leader of our people now. He’s responsible for upholding peace, at least as far as the South Pole is concerned._

_Not that I think he can’t do it! The peace has held for over two years now—thanks in no small part to your rule—but I know the Earth Kingdom is still suspicious. Some of the merchants who come to trade on our shores whisper rumors of bad blood between Fire and Earth traders and of unrest in some parts of Omashu._

_I can’t believe I’m stuck here in the South Pole doing nothing. I’m sure I could help if I could get out of here. Of course, Aang says he doesn’t need my help, but he’s very busy all the same. He mostly comes here to ferry Suki back and forth between here and the Earth Kingdom, and he never stays for long._

_It’s good to see him, of course. And I’m proud of Sokka. And did I tell you—he and Suki are betrothed! I’m so happy for them. Of course._

_Katara_

Suki and Sokka are married now, and Zuko watches them share smiles and whispered conversations with an ache he can’t quite name. Suki still spends some of her time in the Earth Kingdom, playing diplomat and warrior in equal parts, and Zuko credits her and Toph with steering them all through a number of sticky situations. Friction between nations over trade and territory has been unfortunately common. As hard as they are all working toward peace and plenty, a century of war is a hard habit to break. 

Reports of that friction make up no small part of his pile of documents, and growing concern over a free flow of goods between nations is the occasion for their meeting. Despite the specter of tariffs or skirmishes, he is pleased to see them all, and still more pleased to host them in the palace. He remembers when they were all fugitives from the Fire Nation, and every second spent within its borders was a terrible risk. He has been the Fire Lord for over five years now, and he wants them to see his home the way he does. The country can be—is, he thinks—a beautiful place, rich in history and culture, home to a vast population of flora and fauna. 

_21:_

_Zuko,_

_I highly doubt Sokka will remember to thank you for the wedding gifts you sent, so I am writing you for him. Everything was lovely, and I think the whole tribe is grudgingly impressed. I wish I didn’t have to say grudgingly—you’ve been a peacetime Fire Lord for over three years—but I guess we all have scars from the war. Some are harder to heal than others._

_The ceremony was beautiful. Toph finally made the trip from the Earth Kingdom, and she brings mostly good reports, but there are still some rumblings—nothing new. I’m sure you know all about that. We all understand that you couldn’t get away for the wedding, but it was strange to have everyone here but you. Toph and Aang say hello, and Suki sends you her best as always._

_I suppose I complain about being stuck in the South Pole too much. You didn’t have to send me all these books about the history of the Four Nations. But since you did send them, thank you very much. Sokka unpacked them before I could get to them, and he was very offended that you sent him books as a wedding present. When I pointed out that they had my name on them, he was equally offended that you had sent me gifts when it was his wedding. Don’t worry; he forgot all about being offended when he got to all the food you sent. It was all very generous of you. I love the books. In fact, I’m going to start reading the one on the Fire Nation right now._

_Katara_

Zuko knows that the most peculiar Fire Nation fauna of all is its people. He knows they are passionate and powerful and sometimes too easily thrown out of balance. But the world has Aang now, and he is here today in part to calibrate that balance, and Zuko believes nothing more than he believes that his people have a part to play moving forward. The Fire Nation has something to contribute to a world at peace. He cannot undo the destruction that fire has wrought over the last century, but he can do his best to chart a new path, to channel the drive and might of his nation into something good instead of something evil. 

It has been hard and lonely work these last five years. Excised of the twin demons of Ozai and Azula, the nation found itself with a vacuum of power, and no one seemed confident that Zuko could fill it. But Zuko was hardly a stranger to proving himself, and he found the task of gaining his people’s respect a lot more rewarding than chasing his father’s love. Pleasing Ozai was impossible, but impressing the Fire Nation turned out to be easy—he brought all the soldiers home, emptied the war chests to invest in agriculture and infrastructure, and made sure healers and clinic were widely available to those who had been injured in battle or neglected at home. With their sons and husbands home and their bellies full for the first time in living memory, the citizens of the Fire Nation found that Fire Lord Zuko, bringer of peace, suited them just fine. 

The rest of the world has been more challenging to bring around. No one is quick to forgive or forget, and no one has gone untouched by the devastation of the war. Everyone has lost someone, and rebuilding territory that had been occupied or razed has been slow and exhausting. Trade had started back up shortly after the end of the war, but animosity between nations is brought into sharp relief every time a ship is turned away from port or foreign currency is refused at market. Zuko and his ministers had tried everything to smooth over the frayed ties between countries, but the frustration continued, so Zuko had called in reinforcements. 

When everyone is finished eating, Zuko spreads out some of his papers, and they start their talks in earnest. He listens to Suki and Toph describe the atmosphere in the Earth Kingdom, and he matches their descriptions with various reports his Ministers have drawn up for him. Sokka references some trade figures, and Zuko hunts around for a while until his finds those records. Aang supplies information from more remote areas, and Zuko pencils in corrections. 

The trade talks make for a long day, even with excellent food and a few laughs among old friends. When Zuko adjourns them for the night, palace staff show them each to their rooms while he gathers up the papers he wants to look over in his own chambers. 

Back in his bedroom, he deposits the usual slightly smaller mountain of documents on his desk and sinks onto the cushion. He has a few more figures to review before they get started the next day, and he waves a hand to light the candles around his room. It’s going to be a late night, but that’s typical these days, and he feels a little lighter than he has in a while, because at least he’s not working on these problems alone. 

He looks at the stack of papers on the corner of his desk and reminds himself that he never has been working alone, not really. Katara’s voice has been with him all along, and he’s kept every letter she’s ever sent him in that neat stack on the corner of his desk, over 50 of them. He wonders if she’s kept his, and he hopes not, because somehow it is so easy to bare his soul in those letters and send them off across the sea. He thinks about all the wretched things he’s told her that he’s never told anyone else: 

_Katara,_

_Today I went to see my sister and my father in prison. They are both like caged animals, a thousand times worse than I remember, further than ever from being my family. Visiting was a mistake._

_I know what you mean about everything being different now. I’m glad the war is over, glad we have even this fragile peace, but I wish everything were even more different. I wish the war had never happened. I wish the longing for power had never consumed my father or my sister or me. I wish my mother were still here._

_I wish the Fire Nation had never become the nightmare of the entire world. I wish your mother were still here, too._

_Zuko_

He remembers what she wrote back, a little line buried in a longer letter about blizzard season and seal hunting: _We are your family._

He remembers feeling weary to the bone with the work of governing: 

_Katara,_

_I don’t know if I can do this. I think I am too different from my father—the people of the Fire Nation don’t know what to do with a ruler who is not a tyrant. And I will not be the kind of ruler my father was. Maybe that means I’m not fit to be on the throne at all._

_Zuko_

She had written back: _I believe in you._

_Katara,_

_Even though it seems like the Fire Nation finally accepts me, the rest of the world doesn’t seem sold on Fire Lord Zuko. I’m still getting reports that Earth Kingdom merchants don’t trust Fire Nation traders to uphold contracts, and I still hear whispers of revolt in Omashu._

_I get why they don’t trust us. Why they don’t trust me. What if our sins are too great? What if we can never overcome the devastation we wrought on the world?_

_Zuko_

And the answering scroll in her familiar, steady hand: _You made your own destiny of peace and good, and your people followed you. That’s all that matters. The world will come around._

He thinks about all the letters he wrote but never sent, hidden in a bottom drawer of his desk. 

_Katara,_

_Being back in the Fire Nation is so wonderful. There are so many good things about my homeland. I know that’s hard to imagine for someone used to ice and snow, and for someone who thinks this land is the root of all evil. But it’s beautiful here, and my people are capable of good—I swear. If anyone can believe that, it’s you._

_I wish you could be here._

_Zuko_

_Katara,_

_The Fire Nation is a lot like I remember it, but it feels different. I think I’m different. You always encouraged me to follow what I knew to be right. You always seemed proud of me for changing._

_Mai doesn’t agree. She’s exactly the same, and she hates the new Zuko._

_I wish you were here._

_Zuko_

_Katara,_

_I know you’re tired of being stuck in the South Pole. If want, you can always stay up here for a while. There’s still plenty of water, even if it’s not frozen. You could ride up with Aang sometime. He’s in and out often enough, and I always see him when he’s here, but he never mentions you anymore._

_Forget Aang. I’ll send a ship for you. Just say the word._

_Zuko_

_Katara,_

_You sound tired. I’m worried about you._

_Zuko_

He thinks about all the letters he composed in his mind but never even dared to write down. 

_Thank you for listening to me all these years. Thank you for always believing in me._

_Are you still with Aang? Because if you’re not, there’s something I need to tell you._

_I don’t know if you’re still with Aang or not. Either way, there’s something I need to tell you._

_I think I’m in love with you._

He has been reaching for her across the ocean, missing her so fiercely it hurts, for so long he can’t remember when it started. He has been picturing her face, her lithe little body, in the privacy of his bed for even longer. To see her in person, more stunning than he had imagined-- he is finding it very difficult to concentrate on the numbers in front of him. 

Really, it was a miracle he had made it through the day without making an ass out of himself. 

Because he hadn’t seen her say a word directly to Aang all day, but he had seen her looking at him when he was trying to sneak a look at her, and he can’t help the tiny bubble of hope the floats up in his chest. 

Get it together, he tells himself. Certainly nothing to hope for in the middle of the night, except maybe that he remembers how to read so he can talk intelligently tomorrow. He scrubs his hands over his face and tries to focus. He only makes it through a few pages before he hears a little knock on his door. “Come in,” he calls, expecting a guard with some news or maybe he ever-faithful chambermaid with some tea. 

He is not expecting Katara, her long hair tumbling free, her thin sleep tunic concealing far less than her usual robes. She is so lovely in the firelight that he cannot speak. 

“Hey,” she says. “I hope I didn’t wake you.” 

Mutely, he shakes his head no. 

“Well, I won’t bother you for long. I just wondered if you had a copy of those trade numbers Sokka was talking about. I wanted to look over them before tomorrow.” 

He finds his voice enough to say, “Uh, yeah. Let me, uh, let me get them for you.” Smooth, he thinks. Real smooth. 

He sorts through his stack, and Katara drifts into the room, looking around at the rich red drapes and the black wooden furniture. She laughs a little at the sight of his desk. “That thing is a mess. Do you always work in here so late?” 

“Unfortunately,” he mumbles. He can’t find the stupid fucking report she wants, and he’s sure he looks like an idiot, and he’s afraid she’s going to notice—

“Hey, are those my letters?” 

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. 

“They are!” She’s smiling. “I can’t believe you kept them.” 

“I—I just—you know, I kept them for…” He wracks his exhausted brain. 

She giggles, and he is mortified, and he wonders if Toph would open up the ground beneath him and then slam it shut. 

“It’s ok. I kept all of yours, too,” she offers. “I really didn’t expect you to write me back.” 

“Of course I wrote you back!” he blurts. “How could I not?” 

“I figured you were a little busy, you know, running a country?” 

Right. Of course. Get a grip, Zuko. 

“But it was a nice surprise,” she continues, graciously ignoring the flush crawling up his face. “When we were all trying to save the world, I didn’t exactly get to talk to you at my leisure. It’s been great getting to know you all these years.” 

“Oh?” He feels the blush heat up his ears. “Thanks. Uh, you too, I mean. Getting to know you. It’s been nice.” 

He’s imagined at least a hundred scenarios involving her in his bedroom late at night, but none of them involved him being this incredibly stupid. 

He clears his throat and tries to formulate actual words like an actual adult. “Katara, I—I actually wanted to talk to you—” 

At the same time, she says, “Anyway, I’ll get right out of your hair once you find that report—” 

They both stop short and stare at each other. 

He says, “Right, of course, let me just look underneath this stack—” as she says, “Oh, well I can wait, we can talk, what did you—” 

She laughs, and he plots his escape into the countryside under a new name, and she folds herself gracefully onto the floor next to him. “Sorry,” she says, still giggling. “What did you want to talk about?” 

His knee is almost touching hers, and he can feel heat radiating off her, and any hope he’d been harboring of stringing together a sentence evaporates. 

She leans in to peer into his face. “Zuko? Are you ok?” She puts her hand on his knee, and he gulps audibly, and his brain short-circuits entirely. 

She doesn’t press him, but she doesn’t move her hand, either. She looks at the letters thoughtfully. “When I started writing to you, I certainly didn’t mean for it to turn into me pouring out my heart and soul all the time. I’m sure I burdened you with my complaints—as though you didn’t have enough burdens here.”

He breathes deeply, willing himself to scrape together enough wherewithal to answer her. “I’m glad you told me. I know what it’s like to feel out of place. To feel useless.” 

Her face turns sad in the half-darkness. “I thought things would be better after the war ended. I thought I could go home and be happy.” 

“I was afraid…from your letters…that you weren’t very happy.” He thinks about the letter he had started: _I’m worried about you._

“There’s nothing for me to do in the South Pole,” she whispers. “There’s so much I still want to do and see.” Then she laughs bitterly, and Zuko is taken aback. He’s seen her express a lot of emotions, but bitterness has never been among them. “I thought, at first, that I would get to do and see with Aang. He flies all over the world, and when he didn’t take me on his first trip, I thought maybe it was just because Sokka needed me at home for a little while. But then Sokka didn’t really need me, and Aang came back and left again, and finally I figured out that he expected me to wait for him every time. To just be his quiet, faithful partner, pining after him from the bottom of the world, while he did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted.” 

Very carefully, he puts his hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry,” he tells her quietly. 

She looks at their hands for a long moment, then slowly turns her palm up and laces their fingers. Her touch is cool and steady; her touch is like lightning shooting down his nerves. 

“Thank you for listening to me.” 

He tries to think through the fog of her skin on his. “You did the same for me,” he manages. “I wrote…I wrote things to you that I’ve never said out loud to anyone.” 

She offers him a tiny smile. “It’s my privilege.” 

He looks at her pretty face, so close to his he can see the crescent shadows of her eyelashes against her cheeks. He thinks about how very different his life is from anything he had ever imagined. He thinks about how many turns his path had taken before he ended up here. He thinks about how every second of the last five years has been an uphill battle, and how every time he turns around to give up, she is behind him, helping him press on. Every letter from her has been a star in the dark sky of his life, and now she is here, reunited with him, shining like the full moon in his bedchamber. 

He writes a new letter that he never intends to pen: _I am in love with you._

Before he can say the words out loud, she kisses him. 

Her lips are feather-light against his, and she pulls back while he is still frozen, his heart fluttering like a bird inside his ribcage. Her lovely face is crestfallen, and she starts to say the words “I’m sorry,” and he grabs her shoulders and kisses her hard. 

When he breaks away to breathe raggedly, he gentles his hands on her shoulders. “Sorry,” he pants. 

“Sorry for what?” She is breathless, and he feels a fierce spark of pride that he is the reason. 

“I used to be better at…this. I’m afraid I’m out of practice.” 

She gives a hoarse little laugh. “What about Mai?” 

Zuko screws up his face. “She wasn’t a fan of Fire Lord Zuko, Bringer of Peace. She said peace was boring.” 

Katara gasps. “What? What an awful thing to say!” 

He shrugs. “It stung, but that was years ago. Hence the ‘out of practice’ bit.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demands. 

He cocks an eyebrow. “What did you want me to say? Hey Katara, I know you’re with the Avatar, savior of the world, also my friend, but I just wanted to let you know I’m newly single.”

She snorts. “You could have just said Mai had broken up with you. Breakups are hard.” 

“You didn’t tell me you broke up with Aang,” he challenges. “What do you have to say about that?” 

“I didn’t want to, uh, come on too strong.” 

He tries to ignore how impossibly pretty she is, flushed and so close to him he can feel the temperature in the room ratchet up a degree. “Is that what you’ve been doing? Coming on to me?” 

“For the last, like, three years, Zuko.”

He freezes. “Wait, really?” 

She rises onto her knees and swings a leg over his. “What did you think I was doing in here in the middle of the night?” 

“Looking for the…trade…numbers?” He hears his voice go high-pitched when she settles into his lap. Her nightgown is riding up over her thighs, and his hands are drawn to her exposed skin like magnets. She twines her arms around his neck and kisses him, and he lets his hands skim up the swell of her hips, the dip of her waist. She is solid and hot and real in his arms; she is a dream come true. She arches into him, just the tiniest bit, just enough to grind against the hard length of him, and he makes an embarrassingly choked-up noise. “So, maybe not…the trade…numbers,” he mutters. 

She smiles wickedly at him. “Not the trade numbers,” she agrees, and yanks his tunic over his head. 

He feels light-headed at the way she’s looking at him, at the way she scrapes her nails down his chest, and definitely at the way she hooks her fingers into the waistband of his leggings. 

He considers that he is half-naked and she is zero naked, and whispers, “Wait,” as he fumbles for the hem of her nightgown. She puts her arms up, gives a little shimmy as he tugs off the dress, and she’s not wearing anything under it, and Zuko’s brain grinds to a halt again. 

“Woah,” he says, and she chuckles, and he winces, because he sounds like a teenager on his first date. He thinks maybe he’s bungling this, this fragile gossamer thing between them, with clumsy hands and the wrong words and _they’re on the floor,_ for fuck’s sake. 

He scrambles to his feet and pulls her up with him, whisks her onto the bed, climbs onto her so his knees bracket her hips. He drags his eyes over her body, willing himself to focus on her face, and finds himself still rendered mute by the sight of her. Grumbling, he flicks his wrist to extinguish the lights, plunging them into darkness. 

“Zuko?” Her voice floats to him out of the shadows, and he gasps in a breath. 

“I…I can’t think when I can see you,” he tells her, and she huffs out something like a laugh. “And I need to think so I can talk.” In the dark, talking is almost like writing a letter, and he has been baring himself to her that way for so many years now it feels as natural as breathing – which, admittedly, has been difficult in the last hour. He is momentarily distracted by her groping hands, but she finds his and twines their fingers, and he can live with that and still formulate words. “I…I wanted to write this to you, but I never could. But now, you’re here, and I don’t want to do…this…without telling you what it is to me.” She is walking her fingers up his arms now, and he finds that a little harder to withstand, and now she is reaching up to cradle his face and pull him down to kiss him. She is heartbreakingly gentle, none of the playful teeth of earlier, and he murmurs, “You are not helping me.” He can feel her smile, and she pulls back a millimeter, as if that’s any better for getting blood to his brain, but he knows it’s now or never. “Katara, I’m in love with you.” 

A happy laugh bubbles out of the dark, and Zuko lets go of a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, and Katara crashes their mouths together again. “I love you,” she whispers against his teeth. “I love you, I love you, I love you.” She hooks a leg around his hip and draws him closer until their bodies are flush, and the throbbing hardness of him presses into the softness of her, and he can scarcely believe this is reality. 

“Off,” she insists, and he wriggles out of his leggings. She reaches down to wrap a firm hand around him. 

“Fuck,” he says through his teeth, and she gives a self-satisfied little hum as she strokes him. He is drowning in pleasure; he is one twist of her wrist from ending this before it begins; he is years out of practice; he is mortified. But she is steady as always, pressing sweet kisses against his neck, and with her other hand she guides his to the apex of her thighs. He brushes his fingertips over her, feels the hot pulse of her against him, slides a finger tentatively into her. She rewards him with a thready gasp, and he remembers enough to go from here, and soon they are both breathing harshly. Her hand stutters around him, and he asks haltingly, “Do you—do you want to—” 

“Yes,” she tells him, “yes, yes, yes.” 

When he presses into her, it is so much sensation he wonders if he’s died and this is the afterlife, and she rolls her hips against him and he decides that he’s ok with it one way or the other. And then it is an embarrassingly short time before the heat pooling at the base of his spine finds release, but he brings his hand between them and manages to draw out her own climax, and then they are tangled up in each other and fast asleep. 

\--

If he thought it was hard to focus yesterday, today it’s impossible. He thinks they are making progress on some kind of plan, but his attention dips in and out as the memory of her spikes and wanes like a fever. 

She isn’t helping, of course; she’s making eyes at him and she’s wrapped her foot around his ankle under the table. “Tease,” he mouths at her when he hopes no one else is looking, and she giggles behind her hand. 

“What’s so funny?” Aang snaps, and Zuko blanches. Maybe someone was looking. 

“Nothing,” Katara snaps back. “Sokka, what were you saying?” 

Sokka looks between Aang and his sister, confused, and begins again slowly. “Uh, I was saying, I think we have some really good ideas, and I’m optimistic about what we can do for relations between countries.” 

“I think we’ve made significant strides regarding _relations,_ ” Toph announces, smirking hugely. 

He can see it dawn on Suki’s face, and she is on her feet in a flash, dragging Sokka up with her. “You’re right, dear, so we don’t we freshen up before dinner, and then we’ll be right on our way.” 

“We do have to get home pretty soon,” Sokka muses, oblivious to Suki tugging his elbow. “Maybe we can implement our plan and reconvene in a few months.” 

“That sounds great, honey,” Suki says. “Toph, don’t you think we should all freshen up before dinner?” 

Toph looks like she is considering sowing chaos until Suki reaches out and smacks her arm with her folded fan. “Right, of course,” she says, rubbing her shoulder. “You too, Twinkle Toes. Let’s go.” 

Aang is frowning. “I want to talk to Katara for a minute before dinner.” 

“Great,” Suki says. “You can do that later.” 

“But then it won’t be before dinner—” Aang protests, and Toph grabs the back of his collar and drags him out of the room. 

Suki shoves Sokka out behind them and then sticks her head back in the room. “You two get it together,” she threatens, and slams the door. 

“Well,” Katara says flatly, “that went well.” 

Zuko drops his head and lets it bang onto the table. “Please kill me.” 

“Don’t be dramatic,” she snips, and he raises his head enough to glare at her. 

“Has anyone in this group ever been anything but?” 

She sighs. “What do we do?” 

He slumps back down. “How should I know? I’m just trying to run a nation and keep the peace in the entire world, a task I’m sure will be much easier when the fucking Avatar figures out his ex-girlfriend is sleeping with one of his best friends.” 

“It does sound pretty bad when you say it like that,” she agrees, but she is running her foot up his leg under the table, and he gulps. 

“I don’t think this is what Suki meant when she said to get it together.” His voice is wobbly, and he kicks himself—can’t he ever just be smooth? 

“Oh?” Katara is smirking. “I thought she said _get together._ Are you sure you didn’t mis-hear?” 

“Katara,” he warns, her name hitching in his throat. Maybe this is an elaborate assassination plot. It certainly seems like she’s trying to kill him. 

“Hmm?” she hums innocently, scooting closer and climbing into his chair. 

“They’re going to come back in here, and Sokka’s going to flip, and Aang is going to go into the Avatar State and murder me.” 

She is kissing along his hairline, ghosting her lips over the shell of his ear, running her tongue over his neck, and he shudders. “Let them try to get through me,” she murmurs, nuzzling inside his high collar to lap at the skin of his shoulder. 

He gives up, tips his head back, clutches her hips. If this is how he dies, so be it. 

They both startle at a loud rap on the door. Suki’s voice carries through, “Everyone’s ready for dinner, right?” 

Katara scampers off him and smooths her tunic. “Of course,” she calls out, and they all file back in as the palace staff brings out dishes of food. Zuko is sure he’s as red as his robes, which is especially annoying since he’s equally sure all the blood in his body is pooled between his legs thanks to Katara’s little lap dance. Mechanically, he starts pouring tea for dinner and prays no one asks him any questions. 

“So what do you think of the plan, Katara?” Sokka asks, piling his plate high. “Oh, and didn’t Aang want to say something?” 

“I think it’s a great plan,” Katara says evenly. “And I think putting it into play and then reconvening in six months or so is a great idea. In fact, Zuko has invited me to stay here as a liaison from the South to help work out the details.” 

“I have?” he whispers to her. 

“You want me to leave?” she whispers back dangerously, and he shakes his head hard. 

“Are you sure?” Sokka frowns. “You’d be away from home until our next meeting—I don’t think we can spare a ship to come get you any sooner.” 

Aang cuts in, “I can always come get her with Appa!” 

Katara gives him a withering look. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Besides, I’m sure Zuko will need me the whole time—right, Zuko?” 

He doesn’t trust his voice, so he nods. 

Sokka rubs his chin. “Ok, if you think so. Aang, are you okay with the plan—and didn’t you have something to bring up?” 

Aang looks between Katara and Zuko. “Six months,” he says finally. “Not a second longer.” 

“Great,” Katara chirps, and they finish their dinner making small talk until it is time for bed, except Zuko doesn’t say much. He never really gets enough blood back up to his brain. 

\--

It’s only been five minutes since Zuko has bid his guests goodnight and shut himself in his own room before Katara is letting herself through the doors. He’s half undressed and pulling the crown out of his hair when she crosses the threshold, wearing, somehow, even less than the night before. He groans. “What if someone saw you in the hallway?” 

She shrugs innocently, though he knows better. “Occupational hazard. Aren’t you going to invite me in?” 

“You’re already in. What occupation is that?” She is just as breathtaking as ever, but he finds he has marginally more fortitude now that the newness of this is not so blinding, and he hopes this means he won’t look quite as inept as he had the last time. 

“Seducing you.” She stalks across the room and snakes her arms around his neck. “And I meant into your bed.” 

He grabs the backs of her thighs and hauls her off the ground. “Consider this an open invitation.” 

She laughs, delighted, when he eases her down onto the bed, and she drags him down with her. He rucks up her skimpy excuse for a nightgown. “Where did you even get this?” 

She stretches her whole body so he can work the gown over her head. “Suki brought me some very pretty things from Ba Sing Se.” 

“And what did she think you were going to do with them in the South Pole?” He kisses her collarbone, the swell of her breast, the soft skin of her stomach. 

“Nothing. She thought I was going to bring them to a much, ah, hotter climate.” 

He scrapes his teeth over her hipbone and is rewarded with a sweet gasp. “So the two of you planned this.” 

“Sort of,” she admits. He trails his mouth over the inside of her thigh. “She wasn’t convinced I could win you over in one night, and she didn’t think my can-I-see-the-numbers-at-midnight ruse was a very good one.” 

He kisses the back of her knee. “As if I would turn you down, ruse or no ruse.” 

From far above him, her voice wavers for the first time. “So you’re not mad?” 

He slinks back up her body and kisses her fiercely. “What are you talking about?” he asks her raggedly when he pulls back. 

Her eyes search his face. “I did kind of, um, invite myself to stay with you for six months.” 

He laughs, low and hot. “Like I was letting you go back to the South Pole to be miserable.” 

“Oh, you weren’t going to let me?” she challenges, but her voice is full of relief.

“No.” He sheds the rest of his clothes, and she angles her hips up to bring them together. He rocks shallowly into her and tells her, “I was planning to keep you forever, but six months is a good start.” 

She threads her fingers into his hair and pulls tight. “Ok,” she breathes. 

“Ok,” he says back, and they find their rhythm, and she is a dream come true in his arms all over again. 

\--

When their six months are up, they stand hand-in-hand waiting for Appa to swoop down. Suki is the first to spot the glittering engagement ring on Katara’s hand, and she squeals and throws her arms around them both. 

If Aang has any thoughts, he keeps them to himself. 

Sokka puts his hands on his hips and glares at between his wife and his sister. “What’s going on here?” he demands. 

Katara giggles behind her bejeweled hand. “Did I say I was going to be Zuko’s Water Tribe liaison? I must have misspoken—I meant his betrothed.” 

Sokka sighs. “This means you’re not coming back to the South Pole, doesn’t it?” 

Katara’s tone grows serious. “I really am being a liaison, too. Our plan is working, and there’s more I can do. I’m useful here, the way you are in the South.” She glances up at Zuko. “And I do admit, it’s nice not to have to wait for letters to cross the whole world.” 

“No more letters,” Zuko agrees. “Any of you, all of you—you’re welcome here any time, for as long as you like. But I waited a long time for a reunion with Katara, and I’m afraid there’s not going to be another.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know how Zutara Week is supposed to work, or if I'm breaking a taboo by posting early. Oh well?


End file.
